THE SIXTH VICTIM

This imaginative and absorbing audiobook finds a new approach to the Jack the Ripper mystery. It is told in two voices: Constance is a girl of the Whitechapel streets where the Ripper does his evil work; Emily is a lady who works with the unfortunate. Emily has befriended Connie and taught her to read and try to better herself. Connie's voice is beautifully done, but Oxford-educated Emily's narrator overshoots the mark and instead of hitting Downton Abbey, lands in a sort of music hall version of upper crust in which "wall" sounds like "wool," etc. The acting is otherwise fine, and Harris has created a persuasive piece of imitation Victorian melodrama, complete with spiritualists and period social prejudices and a gripping mystery at its heart. B.G. © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine [Published: AUGUST 2017]